Fixing the Brave Blade

As the Fiesta goes on, the Great Discussion™ often pops up. Brave Blade or Chicken Knife? Well, it is not much a discussion as since Freelancer is not allowed the Chicken Knife is generally better. And then since running away is faster, the Chicken Knife just ends up being more useful. Plus, the Chicken Knife’s drawback can be ignored. So the poor Brave Blade just tends to get ignored.

The other issue here is that most players are going to get to the decision point and not having known about this upcoming choice will have most likely already ran a few times in the process of playing the game. So the Brave Blade is at a huge disadvantage for first time players and even if they were “lucky” enough, the reward is not that great. All in all, the Chicken Knife rewards normal play and the Brave Blade punishes it, and does not even grant that great a reward if the player does follow its rules.

So how can it be fixed?

Since the Chicken Knife powers up per battle escaped, the Brave Blade could power up by battle won. These are likely to outnumber the number of battle escaped from so instead of one point of power per two battles, raising that to every four maybe even eight would likely balance it out. Or perhaps it balances between number of battles won and escaped. The more you fight, the better the Brave Blade.

The Chicken Knife has a drawback, of course. You’ll randomly run from battle. This is meant to counteract the high power, but the Brave Blade has nothing to go against. So if we keep its attack power rating the same perhaps it should have the chance of making an enemy escape? Or “frightening” an enemy into not taking a turn?

Of course, more jobs than the Knight being able to use it would also help.

Any of the changes would greatly improve the Brave Blade without making it too over powerful. Something useful and something to make the decision more than a nearly automatic win for the Chicken Knife.